The carcass of a dead spoonbill in Taiwan yielded H5N1 HPAI on December 11th. The area in which the bird was found was placed under quarantine with surveillance initiated over a 1.8 square mile area to be continued for three months.
Japan isolated H5N6 avian influenza virus from a dead peregrine falcon in mid-December in the Saga prefecture. This follows the first outbreak of HPAI in a chicken farm during late November.
Raptors are frequently infected through consuming dead or moribund avian prey including pigeons. Death of this falcon presumes the presence of infection among wild birds presaging outbreaks in commercial flocks repeating the seasonal waves of HPAI in recent years.
Outbreaks of HPAI in backyard and commercial flocks in many regions of the world are preceded by mortality or isolation of the virus on surveillance over migratory waterfowl and marine birds. This has been the pattern in Japan, South Korea, nations of South America, Canada and the U.S. and the E.U. in recent years.